Idris Elba loves the MCU, but tells Desus and Mero there’s nothing like whooping Superman
Even Batman didn't come up with kryptonite bullets
TV News Idris Elba
Idris Elba told Desus Nice and The Kid Mero on Sunday that he’s still Stringer Bell, at least when it comes to getting stopped on the street. Asked if American fans yell out The Wire or The Office quotes more often, the Suicide Squad star stated unequivocally that people really still want to know where Wallace is at. (One answer might be, “Killing it at the box office while preparing his own Black Superman movie.”) Still, one imagines that, like his Dunder Mifflin regional manager, Mr. Elba is aware of the effect he has on women. And everyone.
But, circling back to Superman, Elba, beaming into Desus & Mero’s virtual bodega set from London, was all about his new role as the breakout star of the (COVID-adjusted) hit new DCU ensemble super-antihero movie, Suicide Squad. Attempting to quell any cross-universe warfare between the DCU (where his super-assassin Bloodsport runs with the Squad) and MCU (where he portrays Norse god Heimdall), Elba told his hosts that he’s equally thrilled to be a mainstay of both competing comic company film worlds. He also walked back some widely reported dissatisfaction with his Thor: The Dark World experience, explaining that the resulting (and predictable) fan backlash was blown all out of proportion on Twitter. (If you can imagine self-proclaimed guardians of fanboy properties making hairtrigger-abusive mountains from actor-related molehills.)
Saying that the “negative energy” drove him off off Twitter after persnickety green screen Thor reshoots pulled him back from playing Nelson Mandela, Elba told Desus and Mero that, like the inevitable racist hubub surrounding his Heimdall casting, he’s all too used to the vagaries of public attention. Elba also decried the depressingly foreseeable bigotry hurled at the three Black British soccer stars who dared kick a ball slightly off from where fans would have liked. “When you’re African, you basically work twice as hard,” Elba told the head-nodding Desus and Mero, calling out his (white) fellow football fans for only staying on Black athletes’ and actors’ sides until they do something those loyal “fans” don’t approve of.
Still, Elba once more returned to the fact that his Bloodsport is “the only guy to put Superman in hospital,” confessing that, while Heimdall is great and all, “Call me sick, but I’m kinda proud of that.” (As comics fans—and now Suicide Squad fans—know, the non-superpowered Bloodsport did the deed thanks to a kryptonite bullet.) Regardless, while Elba protested that he loves Superman as a character, he’s pretty pleased about being the one DCU badass who, as the film’s Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) states, “put Superman in the ICU.” (Note, “ICU” does not, in this case, stand for the not-yet-happening Image Cinematic Universe.) Thus, one can forgive the multifaceted actor, DJ, and all-around cool person for telling Desus and Mero to make his parting neon sign proclaim proudly, “Bloodsport Kicked Superman’s Ass.” Like you wouldn’t make up T-shirts if it were you.
15 Comments
The hate against those three footballers pissed me off as hell especially because if anything it’s Southgate’s fault. Rashford and Sancho barely played that Euro and where literally put on the spot in the fucking final right before the penalties, practically without time to feel the pitch and get their heads in the game. For Saka this was the first penalty kick at senior level in his entire career. He’s nineteen years old.The three of them were basically setup for failure with that shit. Seasoned vets fuck up penalties constantly because they are practically luck-based and there’s enormous pressure. Southgate should have known that as the manager.
Am I supposed to know who Desus and Mero are?
Your life will be enriched if you do.
Probably? No worries if you don’t, but they’re not super obscure, and the site’s tagline is “pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed.”
they also get mentioned on this very website like every other week
Yes.
Best talk show around.
You should; they’re awesome.
This is super pedantic, but I don’t think someone like Idris Elba can be a breakout star at this point in their career. If this movie does have a breakout star, it’s probably Daniela Melchior.
I feel like some of these parentheticals are unnecessary, or at least could be reworked so as not to clutter the copy with a million parentheses.
Don’t forget he was also in The Losers (DC) and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (Marvel), both outside of the current DCEU and MCU.
The shot of him in a tree in Ghost Rider 2 is my very favorite piece of low-budget filmmaking.
One of my favorite things to keep (not much) track of in Marvel and DCU is that they can’t decide how famous their characters are or not. Bloodsport put Supes in the ICU but expositionally Amanda Palmer has to explain who he is to people working at the same prison like that wouldn’t make you world famous. Falcon and Winter Soldier just tromp around Europe like they’re supposed to be undercover, and even some cities in the US people seem to almost not know who Falcon is…they actually DO undercover assignments when they’re avengers! It’s like George Harrison going undercover and nobody recognizing him because he’s only the quiet Beatle. So if my planet’s main protector alien god was put in the ICU…I think the guy who did it would at least make the local news.
‘It’s like George Harrison going undercover and nobody recognizing him because he’s only the quiet Beatle.’
george harrison would make a fantastic secret agent. nobody would expect him to show up snooping around
Secret agent sure, like Noel Coward…not UNDERCOVER agent